Chapter 1 - The Beginning of Grandma’s Video
The orange dart struck Lily near the hairline.
The six-year-old squeezed her eyes shut and screamed.
Ropes wrapped around her cream dress, upper arms and the armchair behind her. Every attempt to move only made the loops press tighter against the chair.
“Stop crying,” Claire said.
Several feet away, Eleanor held her phone horizontally.
Recording.
That was the part Lily understood least.
Grandma wasn’t helping.
Grandma was filming.
Claire lifted the orange toy gun again.
Then the front door opened.
Ethan Bennett stepped inside carrying his briefcase.
He made it two steps.
Then stopped.
His daughter.
The ropes.
The orange dart.
Claire.
Eleanor’s phone.
“Daddy!”
The briefcase hit the floor.
Ethan crossed the room in seconds, knocked Claire’s hand away and dropped beside Lily.
“Who tied you up?”
Lily raised a shaking finger.
Not toward Claire.
Toward Eleanor.
“Grandma made her do it.”
Ethan stood.
The fury on his face made Claire retreat.
He called police immediately.
Minutes later, officers entered through the same doorway.
But as one moved toward Eleanor, she raised her phone.
“You should watch the beginning first.”
Ethan stopped.
Eleanor opened the recording.
The video began eleven minutes before Ethan entered.
Claire stood beside the empty chair.
Lily was nowhere visible.
Then a man stepped partly into frame.
Only his dark suit sleeve could be seen.
He handed Claire a coil of rope.
Then the orange toy dart gun.
On his wrist was a silver watch with a black face and a narrow scratch across the lower bezel.
Ethan instinctively looked at his own wrist.
Same watch.
Same scratch.
Lily stared between screen and her father.
“Daddy... why are you in Grandma’s video?”
“I’m not.”
Eleanor began dragging backward through the footage.
Officer Daniel Hayes leaned over Ethan’s shoulder.
Then suddenly grabbed Eleanor’s wrist.
“Stop.”
Everyone looked at him.
Hayes stared at the partially visible man.
“You know him?” Ethan asked.
The officer’s expression changed.
“I know that suit.”
“Whose?”
Before Hayes could answer, Eleanor’s phone went black.
Not locked.
Deleted.
The recording vanished from the screen.
Eleanor stared at it.
“I didn’t do that.”
A message appeared.
NO MORE REWINDING.
Then another.
ETHAN ALREADY KNOWS WHO HE IS.
Lily began crying again.
Ethan slowly looked toward the dark hallway.
May you like
Someone had just remotely erased the video.
And whoever had done it knew they were watching.
